Unemployed and separating ser­vice members now will be able to train in skills that may lead more quickly to private-sector jobs as the Post-9/11 GI Bill starts cover­ing vocational, on-the-job and apprenticeship training and corre­spondence schools.

Noncollege, nondegree courses are covered under the education benefits program effective Oct. 1. The change offers the opportunity to learn a new skill without spend­ing two or four years in pursuit of a college degree.

About 13,000 people could find work within a year using the new GI Bill benefits, according to con­gressional estimates. They would join the more than 200,000 veter­ans using the Post-9/11 GI Bill to attend colleges and universities who, for the most part, are not looking for full-time work.

A wide range of classes would be included, such as culinary arts, law enforcement training, archi­tectural drafting and computer troubleshooting.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki called it “a tremen­dous opportunity to create more good-paying jobs for veterans in a matter of months.” Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chair­man of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee who is pushing other employment-related legisla­tion to help veterans more easily find jobs, has high hopes for the Post-9/11 GI Bill’s expanded cov­erage of noncollege classes.

Miller said the changes are “especially helpful to veterans whose career goals don’t include employment that requires a degree and who prefer a shorter-term pro­gram that will qualify them to begin working sooner than the time needed to get a college degree.” The addition of vocational and nondegree programs to the Post-9/11 GI Bill could be a boon at a time when the unemployment rate for Iraq- and Afghanistan-era vet­erans is 9.8 percent, higher than the 9.1 percent national jobless rate for all Americans.

“This is something we pushed very hard for,” said Robert Norton, deputy director of government rela­tions of the Military Officers Asso­ciation and a member of the Part­nership for Veterans Education.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill is the only version of the landmark education benefits program since World War II that had not covered vocational education, Norton said.

“A lot people coming back from combat assignments need to be competitive in the job market,” Norton said. “With this addition, they have a chance to learn a skill quickly so they can land a See GI BILL

There are several chapters of the GI Bill, each with its own eligibility. The active duty GI Bill Chapter 30 required a Soldier to pay into it, hence the formal declaration on a legal document that he either would pay or not. No other chapter of the GI Bill requires a Soldier's payment.